The Henry's supervisor later admits he can't recall some of the acts.

Apr. 26, 2013

DAVENPORT, IA. — One of the bunkhouse caretakers for Henry’s Turkey Service denied allegations Thursday that he physically abused the company’s mentally disabled employees.

Henry’s supervisor Randy Neubauer was questioned in federal court about numerous allegations that he hit and kicked some of the men at the processing plant and at the bunkhouse where they lived in Atalissa.

Neubauer initially denied the allegations, but when pressed he said he simply couldn’t recall whether he had committed some of the acts, such as forcing the men to walk in circles while carrying five- or 10-pound weights.

Over a period of 40 years, Henry’s sent hundreds of disabled men from Texas to Iowa where they worked in a West Liberty meat-processing plant for 41 cents an hour. The men were housed in a 100-year-old, city-owned Atalissa school building the company converted to a bunkhouse.

The EEOC has argued that the company consigned the men to a life of enslavement and “perpetual poverty and dependency.”

On Thursday, the third day of the civil trial, EEOC attorney Robert Canino asked Neubauer about his treatment of the workers.

Iowa Department of Human Services social worker Natalie Neel-McLaughlin had testified Wednesday that her investigation showed at least 11 of the men who had worked for Henry’s were subjected to physical abuse, mostly at the hands of Neubauer and fellow bunkhouse caretaker Danny Miles.

“This has been five, six years ago,” Neubauer testified. “I’ve moved on with my life. … I can’t stay in the past. This is the present.”

Canino confronted Neubauer with a statement he gave last year under oath in which he admitted one of the men was sometimes handcuffed to his bed by a person Neubauer refused to identify at the time.

On the witness stand, Neubauer pointed out that he had made that statement during an extended interview with a state social worker.

After Canino displayed a pair of handcuffs that Neubauer indicated was one of several that were kept at the bunkhouse, Neubauer acknowledged the handcuffing might have taken place but he implied it was done by one of the alleged victim’s fellow bunkhouse residents.

“There might have been somebody who done it,” he testified.

There was no testimony as to who purchased the handcuffs, who maintained the keys or where they were typically stored.

Canino showed Neubauer a letter that West Liberty Foods, where the men slaughtered turkeys, sent to a Henry’s executive in 2007 alleging that Neubauer was seen abusing the disabled men inside the plant.

The letter said, “We have obtained written statements (from) several of our employees who have witnessed Randy Neubauer abusively yelling at Henry’s workers and physically punching them.”

“I’m denying it all,” Neubauer testified when asked about the letter.

He initially denied allegations that he would sometimes fill the men’s boots with water, then said he didn’t recall doing it. When confronted with a contradictory statement he had made previously while under oath, Neubauer indicated he had filled the men’s boots with water, but only as a type of horseplay.

When asked if he had ever hit, kicked or slapped the men, Neubauer said, “Not that I remember.” But, he later added, “If there was anything, it would have been done jokingly.”

Neel-McLaughlin, the state social worker, testified Wednesday that evidence showed some of the men “would have to repeatedly walk around a pole in the garage area while they were hit or kicked and screamed at by Randy or Danny.”

She said the ritual involved both physical assaults and verbal taunts, with the men being cursed at and, in some cases, subjected to racial epithets or called a “retard.”

One of the men who was allegedly forced to walk around the pole while being assaulted was Douglas “Snoopy” Barco. He wore leg braces and was physically disabled, Neel-McLaughlin said.

She said the evidence indicated one of the men was sometimes handcuffed to his bed in the bunkhouse as a form of discipline and was left there “screaming and crying.”

Also Thursday, EEOC expert witness Sue Gant testified that she reviewed the case and concluded that the disabled workers were exploited and “preyed upon” by Henry’s while being “hidden away for decades” in the Atalissa bunkhouse.

Gant is expected to testify again today.

The labor camp was shut down in February 2009 after The Des Moines Register asked state officials about conditions inside the bunkhouse and the company’s lack of a license to care for disabled adults.

A major part of the EEOC’s case against Henry’s was resolved last year when a federal judge ordered the company to pay $1,374,266 to 32 of the men who worked for the company between 2007 and 2009. That part of the case dealt only with fair-wage violations of the Americans with Disabilities Act.

With the fair-wage issue resolved, the case is now proceeding to trial on the remaining issues of harassment and discrimination. During the four years the EEOC has been working to bring the case to trial, two of the 32 workers it is representing in the lawsuit have died.

Henry’s decades-long practice of paying the men less than the minimum wage was well-known to the U.S. Department of Labor, which over a period of 15 years repeatedly cited the company for wage violations but imposed no penalties.

After the bunkhouse was shut down, the Labor Department pursued the matter and won a $1.76 million judgment against the company for federal labor law violations. In a separate action, Iowa Workforce Development imposed a $1.2 million civil fine against Henry’s for state labor law violations. Then, last year, the EEOC won the $1.3 million judgment for wage violations.